Midday fat cattle futures are down by 35 to 87 cents so far for Monday, though the nearby contracts are 50c off their lows. Futures dropped triple digits at the open in reaction to the CoF report after Friday’s close. USDA confirmed Friday cash sales near $172-$173. Front month feeder cattle futures also started the week weak, as the midday quotes are 20 to 95 cents in the red. USDA reported 6k head were sold in the OKC auction, including 63% steer and 37% heifer, and including 66% sub-600#s. The CME Feeder Cattle Index dropped by 3 cents to $227.26 on 1/18.
The monthly CoF data from NASS had 11.93m head in 1,000+ capacity feedlots on Jan 1. That was a 2.1% increase from last year and matched estimates. The 1.704m head placed in December were 4.5% below Dec ’22, as expected. Marketings were slightly below the trade average guess @ 1.725m head, or -0.9% from the year prior.
USDA’s AM Boxed Beef prices were up $2.31 for Choice and $2 for Select. USDA reported the week’s beef output at 523.8m lbs, compared to 533.6 million last year. That has the YTD total trailing last year by 6.3%. The week’s slaughter was also down 4.6% from last year’s pace with 617k head. The YTD slaughter total reached 1.705m head but remains 9% behind last year’s pace.
Feb 24 Cattle are at $173.375, down $1.000,
April 24 Cattle are at $176.575, down $0.800,
Jun 24 Cattle are at $173.850, down $0.475,
Cash Cattle Index was $173.000, from $- last week
Jan 24 Feeder Cattle are at $229.550, down $0.550
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